SYRACUSE, N.Y. (AP) — Jim Boeheim has a luxury he hasn’t had for a while — a deep bench that can only help as the season wears on.

When his eighth-ranked Orange (7-0) raced to a commanding lead in the first half against Colgate on Monday night, Boeheim began rotating players, and nine played at least 16 minutes in the 92-58 triumph.

View full sizeAPSyracuse's Arinze Onuaku scores against Colgate's Nick Pascale, right. “We want to get these guys in,” Boeheim said. “That’s the value of these games, so that they can show some things they can do and show quite a few things that they can’t do. It’s important for them to see that on tape and, hopefully, that will be something they can learn from.”

“We got a chance to give everybody an opportunity to get out there and play,” Boeheim said. “I think that’s a good thing.”

It wasn’t that way two years ago when Jonny Flynn was a freshman. Season-ending injuries to guards Andy Rautins and Eric Devendorf forced Boeheim to keep the indefatigable Flynn on the court for just about every minute of every game. Flynn averaged more than 39 minutes that year, then saw his playing time cut by just two minutes per game last season.

Wes Johnson, the team’s leading scorer at 18.4 points per game, also tops the team in averaging just under 31 minutes a game, while six players are averaging between 20.6 and 26 minutes. Everybody on the roster has played.

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Supposed to be a rebuilding year?

This was supposed to be something of a rebuilding year for the Orange, who were not ranked in the preseason. But the departure of Flynn, Devendorf and Paul Harris hasn’t been felt yet as Syracuse prepares to host Maine (3-3) on Saturday night.

Flynn and Devendorf, along with Rautins, were the marksmen from beyond the arc last season, but this year Johnson is connecting at 55.2 percent on 3-pointers and Rautins is shooting 51.2 percent from long range. As a team, Syracuse is hitting 40.1 percent of its 3-pointers and overall is shooting 55.1 percent, second in the nation.

Since a season-opening 75-43 victory over Albany that gave Boeheim his 800th career victory, the Orange have averaged 91 points a game in deflating every opponent, ranked or not.

Then-No. 13 California and then-No. 6 North Carolina fell on consecutive nights in the 2K Sports Classic at Madison Square Garden. Two-time defending Ivy League champ Cornell lost by 15 points in the Carrier Dome (Nov. 24), watching what had been a close game at halftime evaporate in a 17-5 Syracuse spurt to start the second half.

“I’m not sure teams know we can hit 3s,” said freshman point guard Brandon Triche, who’s started every game and has been solid in taking over Flynn’s spot.

Syracuse leads the nation in averaging 23 assists per game — the Orange had 35 against Colgate, three shy of the school record set against Rutgers in 1973 — and is second with 14.6 steals and fifth in blocked shots with 7.9 per game.

One thing the Orange can’t do, though, is play an effective man defense. They lost to Division II Le Moyne in the preseason when Boeheim refused to revert to his trademark 2-3 zone — a lesson, no doubt, to his players — and they allowed Colgate to leave the Carrier Dome with some respect, switching early in the second half to man after storming to a 47-16 halftime lead.

“You won’t see much more of that,” Boeheim said with a wry smile. “We held them to 42 (points in the second half). I thought that was pretty good. It was 16 the first half. Just trying to make sure if we ever do lose a game that you won’t be writing that we should be playing man-to-man.”